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John Kerry to be sole public spokesperson for Israel-Palestine negotiations

Michael VincentUpdated
Wed 31 Jul 2013, 3:29 PM AEST

US secretary of state John Kerry has said that the latest round of negotiations between Israel and Palestine will be held behind closed doors and everything will be on the table. He also says the parties have agreed that he will be the only spokesman on the progress of the nine month talks - in what's being seen as a way of heading off very public posturing that has derailed past efforts. Already questions are being raised about whether the Palestinian President can make a peace deal without the support of Hamas in Gaza.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: To the United States again now and the latest on the new round of Middle East peace negotiations.

The US secretary of state John Kerry says the parties have agreed that he will be the only spokesman on the progress of the nine month talks.

That's being seen as a way of heading off the sort of public posturing that's derailed previous efforts.

As North America correspondent Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Under the chandeliers of the Benjamin Franklin room in the State Department the three flags - US, Israeli and Palestinian - were hanging neatly folded side by side. Together with the chief negotiators, US secretary John Kerry appeared for the first and possibly last joint announcement until April next year.

JOHN KERRY: I know the path is difficult. There's no shortage of passionate sceptics.

MICHAEL VINCENT: He says the Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to nine months of sustained continuous and substantive negotiations. And the slate is blank.

JOHN KERRY: All of the final status issues, all of the core issues and all other issues are all on the table for negotiation. And they are on the table with one simple goal - a view to ending the conflict, ending the claims.

MICHAEL VINCENT: The first meeting will occur in two weeks either in Israel or the Palestinian territories.

JOHN KERRY: The parties also agreed that the two sides will keep the content of the negotiations confidential. The only announcement you will hear about meetings is the one that I just made. And I will be the only one by agreement authorised to comment publicly on the talks in consultation obviously with the parties. That means that no-one should consider any reports, articles or other or even rumours reliable unless they come directly from me and I guarantee you they won't.

MICHAEL VINCENT: That's an attempt to head off megaphone diplomacy, the very public negative commentary over each step of the process which has derailed negotiations before.

Former State Department Middle East advisor Aaron David Miller says he's impressed by this decision.

AARON DAVID MILLER: I've never, in 25 years, seen the kind of radio silence that the Americans have managed to impose on these two sides. I ask my friends Saeb Erekat to do a conference call for the Wilson Centre. He said flat out he wouldn't do it because he promised Kerry he wouldn't talk.

And to imagine that an Israeli government filled with so many parties, some of whom are at odds with prime minister Netanyahu, would respect this kind of radio silence, it's a mark, frankly, it's a mark of real seriousness on one hand and then respect for Kerry on the other.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Both of the chief negotiators - Saeb Erekat and Tzipi Livni - today had the chance before going behind closed doors to speak about the possibility of finding a final lasting peace.

SAEB EREKAT: It's time for the Palestinian people to have an independent, sovereign state of their own.

TZIPI LIVNI: This is something that we need to do now in this negotiations that we will launch today. A new opportunity has been created for us, for all of us, and we cannot afford to waste it.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Afterwards they embraced and smiled for the cameras.

At the side of the room was Israel's ambassador to the US, Michael Oren. Within the hour he spoke on US TV about the painful sacrifices prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already made.

MICHAEL OREN: What we need is the Palestinians to do this for their people. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president just yesterday in Cairo said that he'll never give up an inch of land, he'll never let a Jew live in Palestinian soil - that's not exactly preparing the ground the way we should.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Few are prepared for these latest peace talks to succeed with many observers having low to modest expectations,

But each side has acknowledged that John Kerry's relentless enthusiasm has at least got them this far.